It is well known that signals that are transmitted over a cable will degrade with regard to their initial characteristics. This degradation may depend on several factors, such as the length of the cable over which the signals are transmitted or the frequency of the signals being transmitted.
To account for this degradation behavior, signals are manipulated to improve the overall quality of the transmitted signal. In a simple approach, manipulation of the signals is achieved by using passive compensation. In this approach electronic circuits comprising passive components such as resistors, capacitors and inductors are used. These passive components may be applied on e.g. a device board or printed circuit board (PCB's). Alternatively, the passive components can be applied in a connector assembly at the side intended to mate with the device board for transmitting the signals.
However, in many circumstances passive compensation is inadequate to maintain the quality of the transmitted signals at the required level. This may e.g. be the case if the length of the cable that transmits the signals exceeds a certain limit. In such a case, active compensation is required. Active compensation is a known technique for manipulating signals. Electronic circuits, performing active compensation tasks, are conventionally applied at the device board. The power for such an electronic circuit for performing these compensation tasks is acquired from a power source on the device board.
Since it is not known beforehand what type of cable, with respect to e.g. the cable length, is going to be connected to the device board, the prior art approach is to apply an active compensation circuit on the device board to allow any connection of any type of cable. This approach is rather inefficient and expensive.